"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Welcome to this week's edition of Kadishat!
As we approach Christmas, we continue to reflect on the Gospels that prepare us for the Birth of Our Lord. This Sunday, we read the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth from the Gospel of St Luke. When Mary hears that her cousin Elizabeth is carrying a child, she immediately goes to stay with her and help her. Mary put her love in action just like we are all called to do. When Mary arrives, Elizabeth, alerted by her baby dancing for happiness in her womb, blesses Mary. She is aware of an overwhelming sense of the divine presence and expresses it in words that have echoed down the centuries: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
May we, like Mary, always put our love into action to serve the people around us and those who need us.
To read more with Arabic translation, please click on this link.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
The Catholic Church commemorates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary on the 8th of December. Pope Pius IX formally declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, on December 8, 1854. As Catholics, we believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary didnt't have the original sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne.
All the faithful are encouraged to attend mass on this feast and ask for the intercession of Mary to lead us to her son Jesus.
St Charbel's Christmas Carols
St Charbel’s Choir is holding its Annual Christmas Carols, titled ‘Come, Lord Jesus, Come’ on Wednesday 19 December 2012 at 7:30pm in English and on Friday 21 December 2012 at 7:30pm in Arabic with the participation of St Charbel’s College Choir. All parishioners are invited
I wish you all a blessed week by the intercession of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception!
In God’s Love,
Fr. Dr. Antoine Tarabay
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21st Year—Number 1037 Sunday 02/12/2012
Season of the Birth of Jesus
The visitation to Elizabeth Sunday
Sunday’s Readings: Ephesians 1: 1-14 & Luke 1: 39-45
Blessed is she who believed
“In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’.” Luke 1: 39-45
Reflection of the week
Blessed is she who believed
The Visitation of Elizabeth by Mary brings together for the first time John and Jesus. Mary's trip was long and dangerous. It was uncomfortable, too. But that could not stop her. Mary reached her cousin's house. She was the first to greet Elizabeth. At that moment, God revealed to Elizabeth that Mary had become his mother. Elizabeth asked joyfully, "How have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" Mary remained humble. She quickly gave all the credit to God. He had blessed her so richly.
Two holy pregnant women sharing their experience of God, talking about what God is doing in their lives. Mary and Eliza-beth call us to be people of “spiritual conversation,” to talk about God, to tell one another what God is doing in our lives.
Elizabeth's response is anything but quiet and reserved. Our passage mentions her loudness. You know what it is like when someone greets you unexpectedly, a beloved person whom you haven't seen for a long time. I see Elizabeth embracing young Mary, and almost shrieking in joy. But her greeting is more than loud, it is spiritual and Spirit-filled. When Luke uses the phrase, "was filled with the Holy Spirit," it is usually of prophets or others who are about to speak out in prophesy under the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:67; 4:1; Acts 2:4; 4:8; 6:3; 7:55).
The first sentence that Elizabeth utters is familiar to many, since it is also found in the second clause of the Roman Catholic "Hail Mary" or "Ave Maria" prayer: "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus....”
Elizabeth offers two blessings under divine inspiration, first upon Mary herself, as being blessed above all other women, and then upon the fetus of Jesus within her, probably only a few weeks along at this point in time. Then she wonders out loud why "the mother of my Lord" would come to visit her. How could Elizabeth know that Mary's child was the Lord? The power of the Holy Spirit upon her gave her special knowledge of Mary's condition, and blessedness, and faith. Both women had faith in the Lord, both were given a grace from the Lord, and both were worthy advo-cates of God’s will through their faith
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Saint Barbara, Martyr (+235)
Maronite Feast Day: December 4.
Saint Barbara was born in the third century to a rich Pagan named Dioscorus. She was carefully guarded by her father who kept her shut up in a tower in order to preserve her from the outside world.
In this tower she secretly become a Christian. She rejected marriage and devoted her life to God.
Before going on a journey, her father commanded that a private bath-house be erected for her use near her dwelling, and during his absence Barbara had three windows put in it, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, instead of the two originally intended. When her father returned, she acknowledged herself to be a Christian; upon this she was ill-treated by him and dragged before the prefect of the province, Martinianus, who had her cruelly tortured and finally condemned her to death by beheading. The father himself carried out the death-sentence, but in punishment for this he was struck by lightning on the way home and was killed.
When her father discovered that she was a Christian, he wanted to kill her, but her prayers created an opening in the tower wall and she escaped. Pursued by her father and guards, Maronite tradition tells us that she hid in disguise in a field full of wheat. She stayed hidden here until a shepherd betrayed her. As legend has it, the shepherd was transformed into a marble statue and his herd into grasshoppers.
When tortured, Barbara held true to her faith. During the night, the dark prison was bathed in light and new miracles occurred. Every morning her wounds were healed. Torches that were to be used to burn her went out as soon as they came near her.
Each year the Maronite Church celebrates the feast of Saint Barbara. It is a famous feast known throughout the Maronite faith. Wheat is boiled and prepared to eat in memory of her escape into the fields of wheat and children dress up in costume and disguise to remember her on this day.
Prayer to Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara, your courage is much stronger than the forces of hurricanes and the power of lightening. Be always by our side so that we, like you, may face all storms, wars, trials and troubles with the same strength with which you faced yours. O Beautiful Maiden, protect us from the lightning and fire that rages in the sky. Keep us alert and guard us from the dangers that surround us.
Saint Barbara, your courage is much stronger than the forces of hurricanes and the power of lightening. Be always by our side so that we, like you, may face all storms, wars, trials and troubles with the same strength with which you faced yours. O Beautiful Maiden, protect us from the lightning and fire that rages in the sky. Keep us alert and guard us from the dangers that surround us.
We ask you this through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.
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COMMUNION AND WITNESS
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION for the MIDDLE EAST (7)
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION for the MIDDLE EAST (7)
PART ONE(6): Interreligious dialogue (3)
26. Religious freedom is the pinnacle of all other freedoms. It is a sacred and inalienable right. It includes on the individual and collective levels the freedom to follow one’s conscience in religious matters and, at the same time, freedom of worship. It includes the freedom to choose the religion which one judges to be true and to manifest one’s beliefs in public.[21] It must be possible to profess and freely manifest one’s religion and its symbols without endangering one’s life and personal freedom. Religious freedom is rooted in the dignity of the person; it safe-guards moral freedom and fosters mutual respect. Jews, with their long experience of often deadly assaults, know full well the benefits of religious freedom. For their part, Muslims share with Christians the conviction that no constraint in religious matters, much less the use of force, is permitted. Such constraint, which can take multiple and insidious forms on the personal and social, cultural, administrative and political levels, is contrary to God’s will. It gives rise to political and religious exploitation, discrimination and violence leading to death. God wants life, not death. He forbids all killing, even of those who kill (cf. Gen 4:15-16; 9:5-6; Ex 20:13).27. Religious tolerance exists in a number of countries, but it does not have much effect since it remains limited in its field of action. There is a need to move beyond tolerance to religious freedom. Taking this step does not open the door to relativism, as some would maintain. It does not compromise belief, but rather calls for a reconsideration of the relationship between man, religion and God. It is not an attack on the “foundational truths” of belief, since, despite human and religious divergences, a ray of truth shines on all men and women.[22] We know very well that truth, apart from God, does not exist as an autonomous reality. If it did, it would be an idol. The truth cannot unfold except in an otherness open to God, who wishes to reveal his own otherness in and through my human brothers and sisters. Hence it is not fitting to state in an exclusive way: “I possess the truth”. The truth is not possessed by anyone; it is always a gift which calls us to undertake a journey of ever closer assimilation to truth. Truth can only be known and experienced in freedom; for this reason we cannot impose truth on others; truth is disclosed only in an encounter of love.
28. The attention of the whole world is fixed on the Middle East as it seeks its path. May this region demonstrate that coexistence is not a utopia, and that distrust and prejudice are not a foregone conclusion. Religions can join one another in service to the com-mon good and contribute to the development of each person and the building of society. The Christians of the Middle East have experienced for centuries the dialogue between Islam and Christianity. For them it means the dialogue of and in daily life. They know its rich possibilities and its limitations. They have also experienced the more recent dialogue between Judaism and Christianity. For some time now, bilateral and trilateral dialogues have taken place between Jewish, Muslim and Christian intellectuals or theologians. These offer fruitful opportunities for encounter and the study of various issues, and they ought to be supported. An effective contri-bution in this regard is made by all those Catholic institutions or centres for the study of philosophy, theology and other disciplines which have long been present in the Middle East, and carry on their activity there in sometimes difficult conditions. I express my appreciation to them and I encourage them to continue their work as peacemakers, in the knowledge that every effort made to over-come ignorance and to promote knowledge deserves to be sup-ported. God willing, the happy union of the dialogue of everyday life and the dialogue of intellectuals or theologians will slowly but surely contribute to improving relations between Jews and Chris-tians, Jews and Muslims and Muslims and Christians. This is my hope and the intention for which I pray.
Next Sunday: Two new realities
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